The party civil contract came to 53.92 percent after counting all votes, announced the election management on Monday morning in the capital Yerevan. Pashinyan had already declared himself the winner. His challenger, ex-president Robert Kocharyan, cast doubt on the results. His block Armenia received 21.04 percent. Pashinyan called early parliamentary elections after coming under massive pressure because of the lost Nagorno-Karabakh war against neighboring Azerbaijan. Opinion polls had predicted a head-to-head race between the two blocs. The current results were based on a count of 90 percent.
Apparently evidence of electoral fraud
The head of government spoke of a “convincing victory” on Monday night and assessed the result as a new government contract. Kocharyan, on the other hand, said there were “hundreds of indications” from the polling stations that pointed to “organized and planned forgeries”. The alliance will not recognize the election result until these “violations” are verified. On Monday afternoon, election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) wanted to give an initial assessment of the course of the election.
Pashinyan had scheduled the election after massive protests as a result of the military defeat against Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. After six weeks of fighting, Armenia had to admit defeat last August. The number of deaths was given by both sides as more than 6,500. Armenia has had to give up large areas that have been under its control since a previous conflict in the 1990s.
Defeat to Azerbaijan Massively damaged reputation
Pashinyan came to power in a peaceful revolution in 2018 with a promise to overthrow corrupt elites in the small former Soviet republic in the Caucasus. The military defeat against Azerbaijan had massively damaged his reputation. After violent protests, Pashinyan called early elections in the autumn.
Kocharyan accuses Pashinyan of incompetence and recommended himself as an experienced statesman with reference to his term in office from 1998 to 2008. He is considered a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
From a Russian point of view, a victory of Pashinyan is seen as a guarantee that the ceasefire agreement concluded with Azerbaijan under Russian mediation will hold in place in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict region. The agreement entered into force on November 9th after a 44-day war. It also stipulates the stationing of 2,000 Russian peacekeepers.
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